Last Friday afternoon, at 1 p.m., a large contingent of NYPD officers shut down the two streets flanking Rockefeller Center to all vehicles, effectively pedestrianizing the entire area around the famous tree and skating rink until midnight. And then in the evening, they dragged barricades onto Fifth Avenue, giving over a lane on both sides of the boulevard to pedestrians and the gawkers of Saks Fifth Avenue's holiday windows and extravagant light show.
The basic pattern repeated itself all weekend and, pending other developments, will continue every day throughout the holiday season, during which time Rock Center expects to receive some 1 million of the 125 million annual visitors. That's almost as many people that live in the entire country of Mexico or Japan.
On the ground, the pilot program was, unsurprisingly, a huge hit with the people walking in the middle of the street. "We're from Oklahoma, and this is great!", one of the tourists told Gothamist. "I hope they do this with more streets," said an Upper West Side woman out shopping with her daughter. "It's so nice to have to have some space, and not have to worry about cars." Even the one guy I found who may have had a legitimate reason to be irritated by the change, a Baldor's driver on delivery who had to park his truck two blocks away and hand truck his produce in instead of pulling into the Rock Center garage, was not at all annoyed. "Look at all the happy people," he told me. "Taking pictures, holding hands... it's beautiful."
And while I'm no Department of Transportation official, and the only DOT representative I could find on-site cut me off mid-question with "I'm not allowed to say a single word to you," it seemed as if vehicle traffic on Fifth and Sixth Avenues, and on the streets to the north and south, was normal on Friday, with no apparent clogging or spillover of vehicles. In fact, the only slowdowns on Fifth Avenue I witnessed were caused by black cars stopping for pickups in the middle of the block, then waiting for their fares to walk around the barricades at the corners, and wading into traffic to get into their car. (New York City Transit Chief Andy Byford complained that the city's plan did not include carve outs for buses, which now must bypass 48th through 52nd Streets, but it's not immediately clear how badly this has affected service.)
The implementation of the street closings is still a bit awkward at this point. Basically the NYPD has dropped down those massive concrete barriers at either ends of 49th and 50th Streets, leaving one lane open for vehicles during off hours, then pulling a "block car" into place when it's pedestrianization time. There are also tons of those metal barricades everywhere. With no visible signage telling people they can freely take to the streets, it feels more like an emergency closure for some sort of dire event rather than a gateway to a free and festive space. Over the weekend, many pedestrians seemed unaware they could use a lane of 5th Avenue. On 50th Street, pedestrians waited for the signal to cross the road—a road that is closed to vehicular traffic.
For now, the pedestrianization of 49th and 50th Streets will run from 2 p.m. to midnight on Monday through Thursday, from 1 p.m. to midnight on Fridays, and from 10 a.m. to midnight on the weekends. Fifth Avenue (and, possibly, Sixth Avenue) lane closures begin at 5 p.m.
Additional reporting by Jake Offenhartz and Christopher Robbins.
